Mulch Blower Extraordinaire

"With this piece of equipment, we can finish the amount of work in one day that usually takes two to three days without it," said MJ Bardwell, a Gardener Supervisor with Capitol Grounds. Dave Ellis, a Supervisor with Capitol Grounds added, "It has made things a lot easier for us and saved a lot of time — it has improved our access to certain places, it makes it easier to do big areas at once, and there's less raking to be fixed later." The magical, time-saving piece of equipment they were talking about is a hooklift truck, with an attachment that can blow mulch through a flexible hose.

The truck and mulch blower are the result of ongoing improvement efforts. Ralph LoJacono, Supervisory Facility Operations Specialist for the Capitol Grounds Gardening Division, proposed using a mulch blower in 2019 to improve productivity and make the work of mulching easier on staff. Mulching is a manual, labor-intensive process that involves shoveling mulch from a truck into a wheelbarrow, pushing the wheelbarrow to the garden bed, shoveling or dumping the mulch onto the bed and then raking it out. Automotive Mechanic Supervisor Steve Boozer was asked to research possible mulch blowers to automate parts of this process and determine if a mulch blower aligned with Capitol Grounds requirements that equipment 1) is safe, 2) adds value to the Architect of the Capitol (AOC) and Capitol Grounds, 3) improves work or production and 4) decreases cost.

Boozer examined different options and settled on the one that they have now, confirming that it met all the improvement criteria. "This hooklift truck with the mulch attachment frees up folks to do other things. And the truck itself is very versa-tile — it can be used to spread salt, it can plow, vacuum leaves, serve as a flatbed truck or a dump truck, support a water tank for watering, and blow mulch — depending on the attachments added to the back."

The new truck will soon be joined by a second one. Together the two trucks will replace five other vehicles in the Capitol Grounds fleet that have reached or exceeded their life span. "By using different attachments to perform multiple tasks with the same truck, we are able to reduce the number of vehicles we have overall, and keep them in use throughout the year," said Lee Dennis, the Supervisory Facility Operations Specialist for Capitol Grounds Maintenance Division.

In addition to reducing maintenance costs for five vehicles by replacing them with two, there are other benefits to these trucks. The mulch blower can support hoses up to 300 feet long, allowing staff to easily reach areas in courtyards that are inaccessible by wheelbarrow because of stairs or retaining walls. The mulch blower also has an attachment to fill long tubes of mesh called socks. This may not sound exciting, but these socks provide an entirely different kind of value.

"Part of what we do is preserve the historic collections and cultural landscape,” said Dennis. When there are construction projects around the Capitol campus that will disturb more than 50 square feet of soil, the AOC is required to implement an erosion sediment control plan to filter runoff before it enters the city’s sewer system. Dennis explained, "We used to use silt fences for all of these projects and installing the silt fences requires digging a trench." That digging process often cuts roots, impacting the health of the trees, disturbs turf and can cut lines like irrigation systems. "Now we can replace that invasive digging process in some instances with these silt socks filled with mulch. The mulch allows water to seep through while trapping soil particles and debris. There's less waste at the end of a project, too — instead of rolling up the fence and throwing it away we can just move the silt sock to a nearby planting bed, open the sock and spread the mulch. Even the sock is biodegradable, we can leave it under the mulch to break down naturally."

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Frank Bussler (left), Engineering Equipment Operator for Capitol Grounds, helps Richard Caselman, Heavy Mobile Equipment Mechanic Assistant Supervisor for Capitol Grounds, attach silt sock material to the end of a hose during a demonstration of the jurisd

Andy Gayne, an Environmental Engineer with the Office of Safety and Code Compliance added, "Being able to produce the filter media is very cost effective, and a sustainable use of biomass for projects on level ground where the silt socks are an alternative to the silt fences. The socks can also be used for temporary drop inlet protection to filter the runoff before it enters the sanitary sewer system."

As Capitol Grounds employees watched the silt sock demonstration on that sunny morning, it was evident that the new mulch blower goes beyond just being a cool tool — it saves money, helps preserve the cultural landscape, can prevent potential impacts to infrastructure and increases productivity. Jim Kaufmann, Director of Capitol Grounds, said "Our mission requires us to be efficient. The multi-use truck along with a multi-use attachment is like the Swiss Army knife of professional grounds management equipment. It also has the added bonus of increasing our sustainability initiatives."

The next time you walk past a planting on the Capitol campus, or see one in a photo, think about the men and women who toiled to make that bed beautiful, and the versatile truck that helped lay down the mulch.